Bush anti-terror message stalled by sex scandal

WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) President George W Bush's campaign strategy of painting Democrats as soft on terrorism has been stalled by a congressional sex scandal, jeopardizing Republican hopes of holding the House of Representatives, analysts say.

Analysts said the timing of the scandal, a month before the November 7 elections, could be trouble for Republicans who already have been feeling heat from voters over the Iraq war.

''This is a really serious problem for the Republicans right now,'' said Merle Black, a political scientist professor at Emory University in Atlanta. ''We don't know how this is going to play out. We're a month away from the election. But right now, it's a major problem for the Republican leadership.'' After a difficult summer of bad headlines out of Iraq, Bush appeared to be getting his footing in the weeks surrounding the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

His job approval ratings were up. And his message was playing widely that Republicans are better than Democrats at handling terrorism and that the United States must stay in Iraq to finish the job.

''The stakes are high, the Democrats are the party of cut and run. Ours is a party that has got a clear vision and says we will give our commanders and troops the support necessary to achieve that victory in Iraq. We will stay in Iraq, we will fight in Iraq and we will win in Iraq,'' Bush said in Stockton, California, on Tuesday.

It is a theme he is still pushing and will continue to highlight, but right now, the scandal involving former Rep.

Mark Foley, the Florida Republican who sent sexual messages to teen-aged congressional aides, is burning up the air waves.

''It's driving out everything. I don't know how long the legs will be, but probably pretty long, because it's the sort of scandal that's going to keep having odds and ends show up,'' said presidential scholar Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution.

The Foley scandal has even drowned out a new book by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward that said a dysfunctional White House bungled the Iraq war and that Bush misled Americans about the extent of violence there.

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